Darkness Conquered

My eldest daughter is a writer.
A very good writer, with wisdom beyond her years.
She's letting me share this poem because I have not written anything in so long.

Darkness wraps around the world like a blanket,
smothering out all the candles and lamps.
The clouds press down from above,
and the sky rains down with a pit pat, pit pat on my window.
I lie awake, gazing into Darkness.
Sleep pressing on my eyes
and yet I refuse.

Darkness is so thick and Sleep is so persuading,
but I can not sleep.
I am waiting.
I wait
and
wait
and
wait.

The sound of the rain on my window is dimming.
The whole world seems to dim in great, dense Darkness.
There is no more rain.
Only Sleep and Darkness.
And it seems that I must submit to them soon,
but alas! I can not!

I can not quite yet, not when I'm so close...
And just as I think I will wave the white flag
and give myself over,
it happens.

Darkness lifts everything away,
and leaves other things in their place.

Vines are crawling up my wall
and covering my window!
My carpet shoots up and blooms into flowers!
I hear bird song outside my room
and moss holds my head.

Darkness has done its job.
It could have carried me off with everything else
but I persisted and it did not.

Instead it let me dream.
I hear a gurgle
and I think I am done for after all,
that Darkness has come back for me.

But it hasn't.
It is only a small stream,
rushing through the meadow that is my floor.

Finally, I allow Sleep to cradle me in its warm embrace and sing me a lullaby.
As I slip away
and the dream fades
Darkness tiptoes back in.